Saturday, 4 October 2014

Marx, Rootschilt, andTillermann's Wanderings of 1979

Wow, that really worked well didn't it?

This is the album that first showcased the wonderful and gorgeous song called 'Colder Winds' which I think the growing bin made popular again, in their Saar compilation record. Subsequently I featured the second compilation from the region on prognotfrog, and that was almost two years ago now. Wow, have we ever listened to a lot of albums since then, some of which were quite incredible in my opinion. There is no exhausting the treasure hunt, the bottom of this particular progific ocean doesn't seem to have any end to the riches we can find from this period in time...

But let's start with a find from someone else... The Growing Bin recently posted a compilation album called 'Muzik Szene Saar' which he describes as 'hailing from from the small german federal state called Saarland, named after the river Saar, this compilation offers folky vibes, krautrock, teutonic elektronik, obscure funk and heavy rock!'. It's a real find, the way I see it and it's nearly the beardiest record I've heard in awhile. I mean how could you not get your beard on to a track like 'Colder Winds' by the never heard of again Marx, Rootschilt and Tillermann. But do go and download the whole thing, especially for the surprising Latin beauties done by the equally obscure duo Ambi and Arno. Arrrgh what a joy!! ...

This was a composition by Marx, btw, and since this group put out about 3 albums in this period, they were probably a bit more popular than one would think, I wouldn't know, but I'd love to find out.
Incidentally that 1982 album called "Spielgefährten" I am frantically searching for and have been for the last few years.

Rootschilt made a wonderful America-like song called "Longemer 77":

As for Tillermann I will present one of his compositions, "Flight Over Pasadena:"

I love it when Germans try so hard to seem like Americans. Had he ever even been to Pasadena? Maybe. These guys alternately sound like CSN, America, Jim Croce, and Simon and G. I love it when Germans pretend to be Americans, it's so cute. Notice (from biographical link above) they are still very much active as performers, and I beg them to be gracious to let me post this non-cd album.

But back to their big hit, Colder Winds, which I though was such an apposite track to play at this time of year. There is so much going for this one little piece of music. How, but how could it not have been a one number hit at the time, in 1979? It has that gorgeous danceable rhythm, the nice guitar chord riff easy to hum to with the killer descending B7, and that hook is just out of this world, out of town, out of the ballpark, a home run every day until the end of time, you can just sing to it so easily:

"Colder winds, flowing through my headMake me stronger, didn't dry my tearsI was turning round, going up and down, butI'm still a dreamer-- high over the ground..."

Yes myself and a million other people out there can identify with that refrain.

There is no justice in art if this song couldn't become a hit, none at all, it's just a mean ol' evil devil world that we live in.... where nobody ever gets the credit they truly deserve... let's at least try to make it a hit on satellite radio, may be in Germany... such an incredible song... yes, I'm still a dreamer too, high over the ground...